working off the grid. we did whatever we dreamed of. >> we're crazy but not that crazy. smart crazy. >> everybody thinks they're on the cutting edge. when you come to this facility, this is the cutting edge. >> here at indy, preparations forñr the world record jump attempt are the culmination of months of testing and planning. what you are about to see shows why these preparations are necessary. >> jay, there's almost a disaster testing for the world record jump. what happened? >> let's have a look. follow me. >> let me introduce you to don

spitz, the chief engineer at one of our u.s. test facilities. >> don, tell us about what we're looking at. >> reviewing a jump we did recently at our windless facility. least amount of wind turbulence. >> live clip schematic. check. >> so we're designing a vehicle that will be as comfortable in the air as it is on the ground. what we're looking at is 4,000 tons of steel. the car itself is a one of a kind custom built vehicle designed to fly but a sudden gust of wind could prove fatal. by the time he hits the jump he must be at 109 miles an hour and accelerating. take your foot off the gas and the car will pitch forward and spear grill first into the ramp. and that is exactly what you are about to see. here we go.

although the driver was okay, the facility uses these films to analyze what went wrong. he leaves the top well hitting 64 miles per hour at the base. about 120 feet from the launch ramp his speed is actually too high. a yellow driver slows but his speed drops too far. he tries to compensate but at this point it's too late. he's traveling too fast. the truck begins to overretate, the vehicle's momentum forces the rear end up. now like a missile, it heads for the ramp. without modified suspension, the yellow driver would have rolled and the consequences would have been catastrophic.

risk, however, is nothing new. >> from horizontal flight to vertical wall tracks, at the hot wheels test facility in brazil they're preparing a cliff descent from 10,000 feet. >> i'm going to hand it off to anna. she is our chief eco base engineer and red team leader. anna. >> i think the best way to explain what we're doing here is to show you some footage of the area. >> anna, is that the eco base we can see there. >> yes, we've created a temporary base that has the smallest environmental footprint of any of our facilities. >> who is behind the wheel. >> here in brazil we use members of the red team. these are drivers who are selected based on their

assignment to high risk scenarios. >>s test vehicle is an original hot wheels design called the bone shaker. it has an impressive 546 horsepower at the wheels, over 500 foot pounds of torque and runs entirely off brazilian ethanol. >> our current problem is how to quickly move a vehicle from a high altitude to a low one. our solution has been to develop and deploy a super lightweight carbon composite hanging roadway that can be custom designed for any location from simple gps data. excuse me, jay. it's time for me to go. we're about to start.

>> yep. bone shaker. >> the cliff descent was a success. in addition, the facility was also able to test the trap door, thereby increasing the speed from above to below. coming up, for the first time ever, the attempt to drive an indycar upside down. and later live at indy, the test facility goes for a world record. in indycar racing...

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from this deaccident and a near catastrophe we're about to push the limits again, the first ever experiment in driving upside down. the hot wheels test facilities have always been leader in the development of technology. at the uk facility lead engineer rupert collins is testing a new hot wheels indycar. 800 horsepower. a 0.24 drag coefficient and keep it pressed to the track. they're about to test this and see if it can drive upside down. >> we have the uk facility standing by. >> uk facility live link online. >> well said, jay. the theory has been if you drove

a car fast enough, you could drive it upside down. you see the same force that lifts an airplane upwards is reversed here. spoilers press the car against the road even if in theory it happens to be updied down. we're testing it by running our hot wheels indycar out at this hanger flipping it upside down for 4.3 seconds at 306 miles per hour and flipping it back before reaching the other hanger. >> how do you control this speed. >> electromagnetic acceleration to get us going and braking to slow us down. >> imagine hitting those at 300 miles an hour. >> g-load is extremely heavy. look here. heart, brain, lungs, rib cage, all under enormous pressure. we've developed in collaboration with izod a bio metric suit without which the driver's insides would fill with blood and his brain would turn to

mush. okay, jay, i'm going to sign off. we're just moments away. >> bio metrics, on. >> check. >> telemetry, good. >> all systems go. check. >> driver is secured. >> check. >> magnets, up. >> commence countdown. >> three, two, one. >> biometrics, up. looking good. speed is 302. force, 360 pounds. inversion, successful.

>> unconscious. got him. >> emergency personnel to catch magnet. repeat, emergency personnel to catch magnet. prepare for him. >> cut the magnets, up. >> blood pressure. >> vital signs stabilizing. >> okay now the blood is returning to his brain. he should regain consciousness. >> still no sign of movement in the cockpit. he's okay. blue driver is okay. driver is secured. congratulations, blue driver, i'm not sure how much you remember, but you just made history. >> that's not surprising blue driver passed out from g-forces. upon review he was traveling 306 miles per hour and experienced 12 gs during the inversion. overall an amazingly successful test to prove that an indycar can drive upside down.

>> coming up, live at indianapolis, team hot wheels and the hot wheels test facility go for the world record.

from a death defying 10,000 foot descent to the first ever experiment in driving upside down, and now a world record attempt in front of a live audienc audience, and to break the record the driver has to jump over 301 feet. to put that in perspective it's like dropping off a 10-story

building and launching the length of a football field through both sets of goal posts. we will be using the same vehicle but as we've seen a lot can go wrong. for a start the weather conditions have to be perfect. it will all come down to the same yellow driver once again. >> jay, what's changed since the jump that went wrong. >> we spent a lot of time in the wind tunnel getting the aerodynamics just right and created flight cavities in the body to direct the airflow. another big consideration we had was the vehicle's blind spots, when the driver gets on top of that platform he can no longer see anything below him so we've laser cut visibilities panels in the hood for takeoff and landing. >> the door is 100 feet tall. what is the driver thinking when he's up there. >> he's got a lot of time to think. it takes about ten minutes to winch that car up the ramp back backwards. once the driver is on ton of the platform he can no longer see the track. he has to roll into ramp blind. he knows he has to be at 66 miles per hour at the bottom of

the ramp and 109 miles per hour when he takes off. now, once he's in the air he can control the trajectory of the car using his brakes and accelerate but as we've seen in testing a lot can go wrong. >> unbelievable and we're getting close to jump time now and tension right here is mounting and insane. >> definitely. let's go check it out. >> here we go at five, four, three, two, one.

>> yeah! driver, you just crushed the world record. way to go. celebrate, buddy. celebrate. yay! >> yellow driver, on top of the landing, of course, we're waiting to find out if we have a record. jesse olson coming up to talk to yellow driver and we'll find out what jesse, big smile on your face. >> absolutely, man, we just crushed the world record, 332 feet. i can't believe it. great job.

>> 332 feet indianapolis how about a round of applause for yellow driver. >> thank you on behalf of the hot wheels test facility for being a part ofñ the identity of the yellow driver will be revealed on the hot wheels facebook page and it is a big name in motorsports along with an interview and behind the scenes footage. check it out. that's it from the indy 500. we'll see you next time. 00000000

this week, the race is on. >> i'm tim pawlenty and i'm running for president of the united states. >> lots of candidates, but no clear front-runner. i asked former minnesota governor tim pawlenty how he'll break out of the pack. >> if somebody elbows me, they'll probably get an elbow back. >> and mitch daniels says he has other priorities. how difficult was it for you to say that you loved your family more than your country? >> and as the republican field grows our roundtable sizes up the contenders. then facing the future, the class of 2011 is ready to work but where are the jobs? graduates ask top ceos how they can get an edge in this troubled economy.

welcome to the program and lots in store for you. but first some late news since your morning papers. president obama heads to joplin, missouri, today to tour the site of that deadly tornado. the president will meet with local residents and speak at a memorial service for the victims. 139 people were killed in the twister that struck a week ago today. in afghanistan, officials say a nato air strike targeting insurgents instead killed 14 civilians, all women and children. afghan leaders say the bombing was in retaliation for an attack on an american base attack saturday and a nato delegation is heading to the scene to investigate. >> and sarah palin's campaign style one nation bus tour kicks off today right here in washington, d.c. and it's touching off a fresh round of presidential speculation, but will she really run? here's abc's david kerley. >> good morning, christiane. it is a bit of a political

mystery and this bus tour, as well. here's what we know. sarah palin says she will start this tour on the northeast here in washington today. here's what we don't know, where is the bus? is she speaking? where does she go next? is this all a publicity stunt or is this really a launch of a presidential campaign? the plan according to her political action committee is to visit historical sites, and we're hearing gettysburg, the liberty bell and she'll also go to an early primary state in new hampshire. this is un friendfriendly territory so she may be testing the waters and she kind of announced this with a slick video showing the bus being dressed up in a grizzly bear at the beginning. not sure ifs of it was a momma grizzly or not. aides promised a schedule for today, this weekend, and we haven't seen anything yet. so is this palin in perfect surprise mode for the media or a seat of the pants plan. we don't really know. she's really not played by establishment rules and has had some success. she is asking for donations, christiane, on this bus tour which apparently starts somewhere in washington sometime today. >> david, thanks so much.

and so why is sarah palin keeping us guessing? others are getting serious. former massachusetts governor mitt romney officially launches his campaign on thursday in new hampshire. former pennsylvania senator rick santorum does the same on june 6th in his home state. and congresswoman michele bachmann tells supporters that she'll make "an all-important announcement" next month in her birthplace of waterloo, iowa. one candidate took the plunge this week. former minnesota governor tim pawlenty made it official in des moines on monday. his announcement tour then wound through florida and ended up in new york where i caught up with him. what seriously do you need to do to raise your profile or will the system just take care of it by force of running? >> well, even now only about 50% of the republicans nationally even know my name. so we have to get the name i.d. out and then convert that, of course, to support. but if you're a serious candidate for president, that will happen naturally over time, but i like the fact that most of

the other candidates are really well known and yet they don't really have a strong front running position and that gives us time and space to be able to advance our campaign. >> so, ladies and gentlemen, my husband, governor tim pawlenty. [ applause ] >> well, let's get right to the heart of the matter. medicare, you have said that if the paul ryan plan came across your desk as president, you would sign it. >> well, let me start by saying my campaign is based around the notion it's time for the truth and it's time for leaders to step forward and tell america and the american people the truth. as to medicare, everybody knows it's sinking, it's going broke. the current program, christiane, only has about 50% of it paid for by either premiums or payroll taxes and the rest is deficit spending and debit spending or debt spending so we have to fix it, and president obama has an obligation as the leader of this nation to step forward and solve the problem and he's basically ducking it and then pointing fingers at everybody else.

now, as to paul ryan's plan, i'll have my own plan. it'll have some differences, for example, he didn't address social security. i did and we already will. as to medicare it will have differences but if the only choice is we're doing nothing like president obama is doing and paul ryan's plan, i'd sign it. >> so what would you do? what would you do, for instance, you mentioned social security. would you raise the retirement age? >> for the people who are currently in the program, no changes. for people coming up on eligibility, no changes but for the next generation, the people who are entering the workforce, we need to gradually raise the retirement age over time. >> let's get back to medicare. what would you do differently than what paul ryan has done and what's wrong with this plan that's freaking people out apparently? >> well, the current system can't continue. but our plan is going to have some of these features, one, we're not going to pay medicare providers under my plan just for volumes of services provided. we're going to pay for better results and better health care outcome and we're going to put hospitals and clinics and providers on a performance pay system not just

a volume pay system and we'll give people lots of choices. if they want to stay in the current medicare program or whatever comes next in that program, great. that's their choice, but we'll offer them a series of other choices so they can pick what's best for them and their families and then they'll have the opportunity to be in the driver's seat and we'll also have incentives, financial incentives to make wise choices as it relates to cost and quality of health care. >> do you think in the things that we're facing right now, whether it's medicare, whether it's the deficit, whether it's the debt, can any of these things be tackled by one party or another or does it demand and require both party action? >> we hope for everybody to come together and be a team and move forward in the right direction for the country but as you know, there are some sharp differences about what the correct solution is here. so i think any dufus can go to washington, d.c. and maintain the status quo or incrementally change things but for the country, the hour is late, christiane. we have to take significant

action soon. this is time for people who are wanting to be leaders in a bold way to come forward and say we really have to change things significantly. >> define dufus. >> that's a minnesota term and dufus would mean somebody who would be relatively low performing. >> all right. let's talk about this huge debate going on in washington, around the country about the debt ceiling. if you were president, would you a ask congress to raise it now? >> i don't think we should raise the debt ceiling and if the congress moves in that direction, the president, they better get something good for it. it better be permanent and it better be structural like a balanced budget amendment and like permanent caps and limits on spending that are specific, not just aspirational. >> are you being political right now or do you really, really mean that one should not raise the debt ceiling given the fact that most economists say that it would make a cascade of catastrophic economic situations.

>> well, there are some serious voices challenging that very premise, and the answer is nobody really knows, because we've not been at this point before. >> but many people would say, we would be at that point at our peril and that it is not like an argument over shutting down the government for a few days. this is a major, major earthquake in the economic system. >> again, there are people who've written thoughtfully and these are serious people -- >> do you not believe that then? it's your position that it would not affect the economy of the united states or the credibility or creditworthiness of the united states? >> my position many months ago when i wrote an op-ed for one of the major national newspapers was this, president obama was setting up this false choice between default and raising the debt ceiling and at least for awhile you can take away that false choice by ordering the treasury to pay the obligations to outside creditors first and there is enough cash flow to do that for quite some time. >> do you agree that the

military budget has to be really, really tackled very, very severely in terms of cuts. >> i believe strongly that the first responsibility of the united states federal government is to protect this nation and our citizens so i'm not calling for absolute or real cuts in defense. i think the growth can be slowed down. i think efficiencies can be found within defense but i think those moneys should be plowed back into defense to support it. >> small government is a rallying cry of the republican party. what is your vision of the size of government? you've said it has to be more proactive and more aggressive. how does that square with the small government agenda? >> well, just because the government has an area of responsibility doesn't mean it has to be the provider of the service. if government has an ability and an interest in helping people with certain things and they should like education, then give people the money directly. let them decide what's best for their family in a marketplace. we shouldn't have a country where the government says, unless you're rich you're condemned to go to a crappy

school and your future hinges on whether some stupid lottery ball comes out so you can go to another one. all kids regardless of background should be able to go to a school of their choice and realize their dream and president obama, of course, one of the first things he does when he comes to washington, d.c. along with the democrat congress who lecture us about how they're for the poor eliminate the scholarship programs in washington, d.c. one of the most pathetic things i've seen in public policy in my life. >> i sense passion and anger there. >> i was the only one in my family able to go to college. my brothers and sisters couldn't go, not because they didn't have the capable, they didn't have the opportunity but we can't afford to have a country of over 300 million people with a third of our people uneducated or undereducated, unskilled, unable to access the economy of today and tomorrow being ticked off becoming wards of the states. that's not going to work and this system has to change and the people who are defending the status quo are -- they got the interests of the adults instead of the interests of our children and the future of our country. and it does make me mad.

it does make me mad. and it's hypocrisy. >> you do emphasize your blue collar upbringing, and your wife introduces you as the salt of the earth. do you think that gives you an advantage when you go into a campaign like this? >> if you walk into a place like the vfw in my hometown and the fish fry on friday night like mary and i went to a few friday nights ago and some are wearing carhart jackets and playing pull tabs trying to win the meat raffle. they don't look up and say, gosh, i really like his white paper on sarbanes-oxley reform. that really gets me going. they want to know not just what you have up here but what do you have here and if you're going to be president of the united states or run for president of the united states, they want to know who are you. where did you come from? how were you raised? what do you believe? what's it based on? what shaped you? and so i'm not saying it's the differencemaker but when you grow up as i did in a meat packing town and your mom dies when you're young and your dad

for much of his life was a truck driver, he got promoted later to dispatcher and terminal manager, you learn some things and see some things. in my hometown when those meat packing plants shut down and we had all kinds of people in town unemployed worried about their future, this is not some academic exercise. i saw the face of it realtime at a real young age so when people hear that, it just gives you a chance to have credibility with them so they don't think you're some pinhead who writes nice white papers or can spout off about these issues. you've actually lived it. you've walked in their shoes and it helps. >> when we come back the man many say who could have been a real contender, mitch daniels. during its first year, the humpback calf and its mother are almost inseparable. she lifts her calf to its first

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i know a number of you work in small business. >> most important social -- >> created just for this purpose. >> make our mortgage payments. >> it occurred to me -- >> i love my country. i love my family more. with those words indiana governor mitch daniels took himself out of the running for the republican nomination for president. many conservatives were counting on him to lead their party back to the white house. his strong record as a fiscal conservative, his reputation for being an innovator and his call for a truce in the culture wars made him an attractive choice. so this week i traveled to indiana to find just what makes his political clock tick. it's been a tough week for governor mitch daniels and the first thing you notice is the bandage. slapped across the middle of his forehead. at the gym, someone had slammed the door on him. >> this was the day before i announced i wasn't going to run, the popular theory is it knocked some sense into me.

>> i came to meet him at indiana's state capitol to talk about that decision and its implications for the race to the white house. so many people in the party wanted you to run, and they were how difficult was it for you to say that you loved your family more than your country? >> that was easy to say. it's a true statement. it was uncomfortable to feel two duties. i am very passionate about, but in the end, it wasn't really any question which came first to me. >> why do your wife and your children hate the idea so much? >> we got young women, three of them married not too long. they're looking forward to building lives, starting families and this was just a disruption that they were very, very leery of and who wouldn't understand that. >> does it say something about

the way politics is played? >> well, if it weren't for the cheap shots and the, you know, personal unfairnesses that would come with it, there's also just the inevitable loss of privacy, the security, all of that. >> daniels and his wife divorced in the 1990s and she moved to california while he raised their four daughters here in indiana. but they remarried after several years apart. unwilling to put his family through a reairing of that story he decided to forgo the race of a lifetime. do you think you could have beaten president obama? >> yes, i think so. i mean, no one can know. >> business people and community leaders said that they really felt governor daniels could give president obama a run for his money in a general election. much has been said about governor daniels' lack of charisma but most people say his record of success in this conservative midwestern state speaks for itself. he tamed the public sector

unions and cut the number of state workers. daniels lowered property taxes and invested in infrastructure projects. >> i enjoy this centennial version of the -- as we love to say -- greatest spectacle in racing. thanks. >> just before today's indianapolis 500 race, he hosted a reception for motorsport executives that he's trying to lure here. doug brown runs a local technology company. he's adding more than 100 jobs thanks to daniels' tax incentives. >> you don't think of indiana as a high-tech state but his policies are really growing jobs in that sector. indiana had one of the highest job growth rates for private companies in the nation. >> as the governor of a small state, daniels mingles easily with his constituents here at the gym. >> hello. how are y'all? >> during his last campaign in

2008, he put out a series of videos that he called mitch tv. this one showed him and his wife cheri at the state fair. >> come on, belle. >> she came in second in the cow milking contest and he won a second term in a landslide. >> over a third. >> daniels was budget director under president george w.b uchlt schsw.bush. his attempts at controlling spending earns him this -- this looks like a samurai sword. >> that's what it is. because of my alleged thriftiness i had that nickname for awhile and -- >> the blade. >> the blade and the nicknamer in chief conferred that on me. >> and that was. >> president bush. >> indiana's magnificent state capitol took 10 years to build and came in under $2 million. that's under budget. now, of course, that was in 1888

but the governor likes to say it's a metaphor for the kind of fiscal prudence that's needed in today's hard times. he slashed state spending and turned a budget deficit into a surplus and that's what made him so attractive to his party faithful. >> the state was broke for no good reason except it had simply overspent its income seven straight years and so we turned that around. >> it's been said that for you, if you were running, if you became president, your agenda would be deficit, deficit, deficit, cut it. attack it. >> yes, reduce the debt, the long-term debt facing the country before it crushes the american dream, limits our influence in the world and, you know, possibly even worse consequences and -- but that to me, that is the challenge of this time. >> well, paul ryan has tried to put across his own budget proposal, and it's quite

controversial, particularly the medicare aspect of it because clearly this one is causing people to run away from it. not just politicians, but also people. the polls say that people do not want their medicare or their medicaid touched. >> well, i'm not running away from it. i think it is the best way. >> do you think it will be the litmus test, though, in the election coming up? >> i hope so. i think it is the central dilemma. i think it ought therefore to be the centerpiece of the next election and we ought to test the proposition, i have faith that the answer will be yes, that americans are absolutely up to the job of making changes necessary once they understand the facts. >> is there a way to do this in a way that does not put so much burden on the individuals, on the citizens? >> there's a way to do it that protects the most vulnerable seniors more. another important and positive

point to be made is that our current system is brutally unfair. it is tilted toward higher income people in many, many ways. there's no reason on earth that we should be sending warren buffett a pension check or paying for bill gates' health care or mine for that matter. and in the 2.0 system of medicare and social security, not next generation, not this one, we ought to heavily devote the resources to those who need the most. >> you've also said that tackling debt, debt, debt and absolutely having to get that done is paramount to the survival of the republic and that perhaps there should be a truce on some of the very, very divisive social issues that tend to take up so much of the oxygen. do you still believe that? >> yes, i do. you know, not that anybody changes their mind, not that anybody retreats one foot, just that temporarily, we address the

issue that threatens us all. if this country goes broke, we will all pay the price. black and white, gay and straight, male and female, we are all in this together. >> so there's a lot of politics to talk about this weekend and that's exactly what we're going to do with our roundtable when we return. [ male announcer ] at e-trade, investing means taking action with professional-grade research. and some of the most powerful, yet easy to use trading tools on the planet. it's investing with intelligence and cold hard conviction.

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democratic strategist donna brazile, the former republican national committee chairman ed gillespie and abc's senior political correspondent jonathan carl. welcome, everybody. george, what is up? is sarah palin going to run? >> i don't know. >> what do you think? >> two things are infinite, one is the expanding universe and the other is media attention to sarah palin who is a genius at manipulating it. she has several political problems. the first of which is there is no undecided vote in this country anymore about sarah palin surely. second, the threshold question, it's not usually asked but it's in everyone's mind and a presidential election should we give this person nuclear weapons? and the answer is -- it answers itself. that doesn't mean she can't be without political consequence. if she gets in now, it will be because i think michele bachmann is about to get in and will take up the same political space and the two of them can be devastating to tim pawlenty because he has great appeal to the evangelical christians who

are dispositive in iowa and she can divide that vote and take it away from him and thereby help romney. >> so do you think from all the reporting you've done, jon, that there is evidence of any serious laying of the ground by sarah palin for a race or is this, as george says, really a publicity stunt? >> i see absolutely no evidence that sarah palin is preparing to run for president. doesn't mean she can't change her mind but she doesn't have a scheduler or no donor network built up. she doesn't have a press secretary. every decision we can tell is being strictly made by sarah and todd palin. there is no preparation. >> the house she just bought and all of that stuff. >> the house she bought, it's a summer home in arizona. i don't think that's a sign you're running for president. but, look, if you go and you talk to activists in south carolina, iowa, new hampshire, they will tell you there is no sign whatsoever of palin or any palin organization. >> so, ed gillespie, given your former position, what would the effect of a palin candidacy be on the race? >> well, i think she does

command a great deal of attention. you know, the media have a love/hate relationship with sarah palin. they hate her but they love to cover her so she'll have a pretty big impact in terms of other candidates responding to her policy proposals and her activities but like everyone else here i have no idea whether or not she's going to run or not. >> any moment now she's going to tweet, and we will learn whether or not she will start off the bus tour at the lincoln memorial or the washington monument. sarah palin is a phenomenon. she doesn't need to run by the rules established by the republicans. she can run simply on her own timetable when she feels like and she doesn't have to follow conventional wisdom. i think she's running. she sees a big opportunity and you know what -- >> should be hoping she's running. >> look, i'm hoping michele bachmann -- >> who is the dreamboat republican candidate for the democrats? >> we don't have one. >> who would you rather run

against? >> well, my man dropped out. haley barbour. i wanted haley barbour to run because i could go on tv and translate everything that he would say, but mitch daniels is not in the race, tim pawlenty is the person i think to beat. >> person to beat. >> at this point, yes. >> what do you think, ed? >> i think it's wide open. i think that's great for our party right now and i think largely the field is formed. and there may be some late entrants to come, but i think we've got a field that whomever emerges as our nominee will be able to beat barack obama in 2012. >> you say largely. i think you were more definitive earlier in the week. you said the field is formed and the nominee will come from the current crop. >> i think i said largely for -- there may be some late entrants. my point is that i think for most republican activists and donors and elected officials, they're probably going to sign up for somebody now in the current field. there may be somebody who comes later but i suspect the field is pretty formed.

whoever emerges is likely to come from this crop of candidates soon or to -- >> if it's not fully formed, it would probably be governor perry for several reasons, governor of texas, texas is the republicans what california is to the democrats, a great source of reliable electoral votes and money. second, in every contested republican nomination scramble since 1980 there has been a texan. john connolly, the first bush and second buch so there is a space there to be filled. >> and you have been talking to people in texas about this. >> i find actually some of the least enthusiastic about a perry candidacy in texas. look, the guy's never lost an election, so he's clearly formidable. just won a tough primary in texas. but the reaction i got from texans, do you think america is ready to elect another texas governor right now as president? >> what about another campaign by mitt romney? he is about to announce. he's kept a very low profile. he hasn't been doing any major interviews other than he's been

raising a lot of money. is this all about to change? are we going to see something different cropping up in the next week? >> he's been the invisible candidate but doing all he needs to do and proven he can raise money above and beyond anybody including sarah palin if she were to jump in. it's fascinating right now, you're seeing romney is going to come out. the biggest weakness he had last time was he flip-flopped on issue after issue. now you have the no flip-flop romney. he's sticking to t.a.r.p. and he's sticking to health care. didn't back down from ethanol subsidies even though not focusing on iowa. >> you make a point. last week he said that he helped to save the auto industry when a year ago he said he was opposed to the government bailing out the auto industry. we don't know what -- which mitt romney will appear this week and i think it's called a bittersweet form. can you imagine that, bittersweet. >> bittersweet or bitter? >> i think it's bittersweet form.

>> he's had a candidacy already. what makes him likely to do better this time around? >> i think he does have all the markings of a second time candidate. he's i think improved on the stump. i think he's much more comfortable as a candidate and the -- in terms of the political environment, the economy is the number one concern and he has credibility when he's talking about economic policy and job creation. >> so that would be his strength. >> i think that's probably his strong suit, exactly, yeah. >> stronger than for tim pawlenty? >> i think as you know i'm neutral and i think we have a field that -- >> empirical facts. >> pawlenty has a great record as a governor of a very blue state. governor romney has a great record in terms of private sector understanding of the economy and a critique of obamaomics. you know, governor huntsman, rick santorum, everybody has their own assets. everybody has questions they have to answer. >> let's, however, remember that at this point in the 2008 electoral cycle, four years ago exactly, the prohibitive favorite was rudy giuliani. >> right, right.

>> who is making some noises. but let me get to medicare and this week there was yet another hiccup in the great medicare debate and president clinton jumped into that. let's play what he said to paul ryan at the fiscal conference this week here in washington. >> i'm glad we won this race in new york. but i hope the democrats don't use it as an excuse to do nothing on medicare. >> my guess is it's going to sink into paralysis. is what's going to happen. you know the math. i mean it's just we -- we knew we had to put our officials out there. but you got to get out there. you got to get it moving. >> if you want to talk about it -- >> great, thanks. >> they were obviously talking about the new york 26, the race that went for the democrats and they say medicare was the big bear in the race. are people going to be running away from this or are the republicans going to be able to coalesce around the current plan? >> they'll coalesce around the idea that the question is not do we keep medicare as we've got it now or is it some other plan because the one thing we can't

have forever is the unsustainable plan we have now. i don't think the new york race will drive people away from this because it would have been a different outcome. too close for comfort but a different outcome, the republican almost certainly would have won if there hadn't been a third party candidate who spent $3 million, every penny of it his. no contributions he got as far as anyone can tell. what the republicans have learned, pat moynihan used to tell me this after a long public life, you cannot exaggerate how often and how simply you have to say things in public life to get this country's attention. >> do you agree the manning won only because the race was split? >> this race was won on three issues, medicare, medicare, medicare and kathy ran a great race. she was on message. she pointed out that her opponent supported the ryan plan, that was a kiss of death and republicans knew it and the republicans are on record now to end medicare as we know it. they're going to have to deal

with that and let me just tell you, bill clinton was thrilled that kathy won that race. for democrats up on capitol hill, they have new air under their wings. >> bill clinton made an important statement there. he said i hope democrats don't use it as an excuse. that's exactly what democrats are doing right now. there is no democratic plan on reforming medicare or we're waiting for the president to come out with a plan. the president's old budget lost 97-0 in a vote in the senate, so, you know, i mean -- republicans are scared. they are definitely scared. >> but the ryan plan lost. the toomey plan lost. look, the senate was in a mood to just say no so they can get out of town but the republicans have consistently tried to kill medicare for the last 30 years and -- >> no. that is untrue. trying to save medicare and the only party that has a plan to save medicare is the republican party. the democrats in the senate who have controlled the senate for, you know, three years, going on three years now haven't passed a

budget in 760 days. >> okay. >> they have nothing to offer the american people. that will be the choice. >> and we will continue this discussion in the green room and mitch daniels told me actually he thought medicare should be a litmus test in the coming up election. so join us there at abcnews.com/thisweek where you can also find our fact checks of today's interviews from politifact. and when we return, getting jobs and hiring in this economy. but first "the sunday funnies" so stick around.

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bridgestone. and now "the sunday funnies." >> the field for the republican candidate for president is finally taking shape. after announcing that he would not run last week, he made a big announcement, donald trump told fox and friends this morning he might run. see, that's the kind of decisiveness we need. >> huge story. this is a bombshell, indiana governor mitch daniels has announced he will not run for president in 2012. yeah. daniels reached the decision after early polling determined that even he didn't know who mitch daniels was. >> president obama is on a big european trip and i heard that he is sleeping at buckingham palace when he visits england. that's when you know the u.s. is short on cash. when president obama is like, hey, is it cool if i crash at your place? no, the couch is fine, the couch is fine. when we come back, what does

it take to land a job in this climate? we'll connect people who need a job with some people who could offer them in a moment. ththththththththththththh

you will fail at some point

in your life. accept it. you will lose. you will embarrass yourself. you will suck at something. there's no doubt about it. and i know that's probably not a traditional message for a graduation ceremony but, hey, i'm telling you, embrace it. >> as you climb those career ladders, just remember to reach down and pull others up behind you. that's what so many folks have done for you all and now it is your turn to repay the favor. >> and so the caps and gowns are put away and the real work of finding a job begins and i'm joined now by four members of the class of 2011, stuart of louisiana state university, savayia